Those who have money and don't have empathy will applaud this as evidence of Romney's generous soul and impulses. The 99% of the rest of us will recognise the gesture as that of a lord and master demanding unwonted admiration from a serf. A newsclip of this one should be made into a continuous loop and played by the Democrats, in exactly the way Dukakis in a tank was transformed into a national joke.

And not just an astounding act in and of itself, but an utterly incompetent political act on the most pragmatic, amoral level. This is on the same level as citing 'Battlefield: Earth' as a favorite novel, which Romney also did. In both cases, he should have known better. But, then, the lord and master doesn't have to know better, really...